Lean Six Sigma: Process Improvement Tools and Techniques Donna C. Summers © 2011 Pearson Higher Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. Work Optimization Chapter 14

Lean Six Sigma: Process Improvement Tools and Techniques Donna C. Summers © 2011 Pearson Higher Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. Work Optimization Line Balancing –Line balancing occurs when work is performed by each operator evenly over time with no peaks or valleys in demand placing undue burdens on employees or machines. –Each worker or machine on the assembly line has work that fills the same amount of time, so no one or no machine is waiting for something to do or is having to rush to keep up. –Each machine and each operator makes what is needed timed to match when it is needed. –Unbalanced lines are evident when workstations make more than is needed or have to wait for production from the previous work center to reach them.

Lean Six Sigma: Process Improvement Tools and Techniques Donna C. Summers © 2011 Pearson Higher Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. Work Optimization

Lean Six Sigma: Process Improvement Tools and Techniques Donna C. Summers © 2011 Pearson Higher Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. Work Optimization Setup time Reduction –Setup time is the time between the production of the last good part in one series of parts and the production of the first good part in the next series of parts. –Setup time reduction efforts find ways to eliminate waste in setups thus speeding up the process of setup.

Lean Six Sigma: Process Improvement Tools and Techniques Donna C. Summers © 2011 Pearson Higher Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. Work Optimization Reduce Batch Sizes (Single Piece Flow) –Reduced batch sizes allow each piece as it is created to flow from one operation to the next with no delays, storages, or work-in-process inventories. –Reduced batch sizes increase inventory turn- overs and help show where process improvements can be made. –Reduced batch sizes allow quality issues to be found quickly.

Lean Six Sigma: Process Improvement Tools and Techniques Donna C. Summers © 2011 Pearson Higher Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. Work Optimization Schedule Leveling –Establishing a schedule which allows the same amount to be produced daily with minimal fluctuations in demand. –Level scheduling enables an organization to link the customer schedule with the pace of manufacturing. Requires the cooperation of the customer

Lean Six Sigma: Process Improvement Tools and Techniques Donna C. Summers © 2011 Pearson Higher Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. Work Optimization Standardized Work –Standard operating procedures Everyone doing a particular job in the same way, no difference between the 10 th time they did the work and the 4000 th time they did the same work.

Lean Six Sigma: Process Improvement Tools and Techniques Donna C. Summers © 2011 Pearson Higher Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. Work Optimization Visual Management or Transparency refers to enabling anyone to have the ability to see, in real time, what is happening with a process. From the instantaneous information they gather, they should also be able to determine whether or not anything has changed or needs to be changed.

Lean Six Sigma: Process Improvement Tools and Techniques Donna C. Summers © 2011 Pearson Higher Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ All Rights Reserved. Work Optimization Visual Management –Visual management enables someone looking at a job or a work space and know in at a glance that something has been misplaced or mismanaged. –Visual management encourages a place for everything and everything in its place.